Night
A true story told by award winning author Elie Wiesel, a young Jewish boy's life is forever changed when the Nazis occupy his hometown of Sighet, Hungarian Transylvania, and ship him and his family off to a concentration camp. There, the prisoners are treated with absolute cruelty and disrespect, so Elie must learn to survive, for nothing will ever be the same. Author: Elie Wiesel Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006 Reviews Erin Collazo, Bestsellers Expert Night, by Elie Wiesel, is a hard book to read. The writing is clear and the volume is short, but it is difficult nonetheless. Who wants to read about torture and genocide, about people being ripped from their homes, losing their faith and turning on their own families?It is depressing, to say the least. Night is not, however, primarily about making the reader sad or dwelling on the past. It is about remembering. Wiesel wrote his memoir so that we would remember what happened and remember what civilized humans are capable of. Part of me wants this book to do more than remember. I am disturbed by the fact that Wiesel never returns to hope or faith . He raises big questions about humanity and suffering, but the book never points toward a meaningful answer. I want redemption, or at least some hint of light. But Wiesel did not experience light, and Night will not let the reader pretend the Holocaust was anything other than what it was. Wiesel tells the complete truth about his experience, and the reader is left with hard questions. Remembering, however, is not a fruitless task. We remember so that we can tackle the big questions honestly and so we can change. We remember because Rwanda and Darfur prove the lessons of the Holocaust still need to be learned. We may not want to remember, but we should. So, read. http://bestsellers.about.com/od/nonfictionreviews/gr/Night_r.htm Phil Mongredien, The Guardian Elie Wiesel was 15 when the Nazis came for the 15,000 Jews of his hometown of Sighet, Transylvania, in May 1944. Upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau, his mother and sister were murdered within hours, while he was put to work as a slave labourer. Eight months later, the Germans evacuated the camp and forced the survivors on a death march that ended at Buchenwald. Wiesel was one of the few still alive when the Americans arrived in April 1945. One of the most horrifying memoirs ever written, Night was first published in English in 1960. To mark Wiesel's 80th birthday, the Nobel laureate's wife, Marion, has produced a new translation. In stark, simple language, he describes what happened to him and to his family. It is hard to imagine anything more hellish than the picture he paints of his arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau: "Huge flames were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children." =Sign up to our Bookmarks newsletter= Read more Throughout, Wiesel conveys a collective sense of disbelief that "disciplined, educated men" could commit such crimes. In a key scene, he tells how one of Sighet's Jews, Moishe, had been deported to Poland in 1942. Moishe and his companions had dug their own graves before being shot and left for dead. But Moishe had somehow survived and returned to Sighet to warn his friends. Yet nobody would believe him. As the events of the 1940s slip ever further away, they become harder to comprehend and imagine. In his foreword, Wiesel explains why he felt compelled to write Night, saying his "duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living". He has done more than most to keep alive their memory. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/dec/20/night-elie-wiesel Activities After reading the book, here is a workbook to aid with reading comprehension and to reinforce some of the subject material of the book. http://www.wtamu.edu/webres/File/Academics/NightWorkbook.pd Other Links Book trailer: http://www.60secondrecap.com/study-guide/teaching-night-by-elie-wiesel/ Author's personal website: http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/